April 30, 2012

RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif. - On a pristine weekend of racing weather at Lake Natoma, the University of San Diego women's rowing team concluded a strong two days of competition at the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association regatta this past Saturday and Sunday. The Toreros advanced all of their boats to the grand finals following the first day of racing and finished the weekend with their pair, second novice eight and novice 4+ posting first-place finishes in Sunday.

While no varsity boats were in action during the weekend, USD's novice boats and newcomers proved the depth and speed the Toreros have at all levels of the program. Saturday's action saw the novice 4+, lightweight 4+ and pair each win their respective heats in their first races. The novice 4+ won by a large margin over Willamette, Sacramento State, Humboldt State, Seattle University, Cal and Chapman, while the lightweight 4+ had to use a late push over the final 200 meters to pull away from UC San Diego to earn the victory.

In Sunday's grand finals, the pair clocked a huge win over the rest of the field to take first, while the second novice eight won their race by finishing at 7:25.3, giving them a hefty win over second-place finisher UC Davis (7:41.9). The third USD boat to win the grand final was the novice 4+, who put some distance between themselves and the next boat by coming in at 7:38.7 ahead of Western Washington (7:46.5).

The Toreros also got strong finishes from their lightweight 4+, who clocked a third-place finish with a time of 8:02.1, and their novice eight, who finished fourth at 7:20.6.

USD is now preparing to defend their back-to-back West Coast Conference championships on May 12 by returning to Lake Natoma for the WCC Championships.